Gyoten- Marathon ( Jogging at dawn )

It is held at 4:45 a.m. on the fourth Saturday of January. First, all the students come together on the school grounds and enjoy dancing "Jenka" around a big fire in the the center of the grounds. Also they do "Johoku exercise" and "Tentsuki excercise". After that, student jog around our school district saying "Yoisho"togher. ( Boys jog about 5 kilometers. Girls jog about 4.5 kiometers.) After jogging we eat hot Miso Udon ( Japanese noodles ) which students' mothers have made at school.

Performance of Class Songs

Every year each class writes a class song. The words for the song are written based on the ideas of each student. The melody is composed by a few students. In recent years, students have used computers to compose the songs. All students sing together at the school culture festival. After the festival, students sometimes sing the song in their classes.

Recycling Activities

We have a Recycling Activities' day every month and the student council appeals for each student's cooperation. Every student and teacher brings more than three kilograms of waste materials. Some students bring about 500 kilograms of cardboard boxes with the help of their parents. Profits from this activity are used for volunteer projects, student council activities, and so on.

Cleaning Activities "Mouse Group"

Students clean the downtown area near our school. One student's actions started this activity. He placed can ashtrays at some bus stops to beautify the city and to prevent fires. Then it developed into a school activity. We named it " Mouse Group" because the students work in the early morning like mice and we want this activity to expand like baby mice. On Sunday mornings, each class takes a turn with the cleaning activitiy.

Beautify the River

Okazaki fireworks diplay is held at the Otogawa river on the first Saturday of August. After the display, a lot of garbage is left. Every year the students come togher on the banks of the river and clean early morning. We make the bank much more beautiful with one hour of cleaning.

Visiting Elderly Citizens

The student council visits elderly citizens before Respect-for the Aged Day ( September 15th ) every year. This is the activity where students visit people older than 88 years old who live in our school district and celebrate their long life. The second-year and the third-year representative students of the region visit the aged with a teacher in charge. Some of the aged have carefully grown the potted plants which have been presented by students the previous year, which encourage the aged and the students both.

Big Athletic Meet

There are a lot of events, for example, the 100-meter dash, long jump, and rigional relay. In this relay 9 students pass the baton from the 1st graders to the 9th graders. In additon, we have various intramural athletic events,"Kiba-sen"- horse riding battle and scramble for caps ( by boys ), a tug of war ( by girls ). There are some original traditional games, too, such as " Johoku Tojo-Game" by the 7th graders and " Johoku Gomangokubune-Game" by the 9th graders. These games began in connection with Okazaki castle near our school and have been played by students for a long time.

Open Lectures

It started in 1994. We invite some people who take an active part in various fields in our school district and in our city. We ask them to give lectures to the students. About 10 people will come to school as lecturers and talk to the students in each class room. Students choose a lecture that they are interested in . Every lecture is enjoyable for the students because they can learn something different from usual classes.

Activities for International Understanding

Each class chooses one theme on the international understanding and does activities relating to it. Each theme is decided by the students'ideas and the homeroom teachers'advice in the first semester. We introduced these activities on the homepage before, but the committee of international understanding took over the activities this year.

Johoku Science Day

It began in 1968. It is held on February 12, the anniversary of the scientist Kotaro Honda's death. He was from our city and was known as the "Father of Steel."
On this day, some students are awarded for their honorable scientific studies or productions and they report their studies. After that, a lecture is given by a person whose studies are well-known in science.

Open Class for Grandparents

This was started because there are few opportunities for grandparents to come to school. First, they observe students' classes and have school lunch with students and teachers. Then they take pictures with their grandchildren and teachers and we present a potted flower to every grandparent. Many grandparents look forward to it each year.